SERVE ME - SERVE YOU?

During difficult times, we as a church may easily forget our purpose and reason for being. When we talk about Budget restraints in down economic times, we sometimes forget why we exist as a church. The message that sometimes comes across is that we as a church "need more resources" in order to carry-out programs which benefit us. Jesus Christ did not establish the church to be served. He established the church to serve. The message  we should be sharing is that "the church exists to serve others", and through our "time, talents and gifts" we are given  the opportunity to reach out to and share Christ's love with a hurting world.

Every year the church conducts a financial audit. Should we not also conduct a "service audit"?  If we are called to "serve" should we not evaluate how well we are doing it? How faithful are we in reaching out to those outside the walls of our church building? When we conduct a "service audit", we ask the following question which was phrased some time ago by Rev. Don Haynes. He asked "IF YOUR CHURCH CLOSED TODAY, WHO WOULD MISS IT OTHER THAN YOUR MEMBERS?"

Think about the ministries which we seek to do together as Isle of Hope United Methodist Church.  Are we asking the church to SERVE ME or SERVE YOU?  Our Mission Statement calls for us as a church to LOVE, GROW, SERVE, SHARE.  Its easy to LOVE those we know and want to GROW closer to them and closer to Jesus Christ with them. But what about those we do not yet know, or those we know about but are some distance from us? In trying to deal with the difficult economy around us, many would want to first cut back on our response to those beyond our walls, who in many ways are more needy than we are. If we made a list of those who would miss our church if it closed, or even if it could not or did not serve them, who would head the list? Certainly on that list would be "widows and orphans" and many unable to help themselves. These are those which the scriptures tell us should be our first concern.   

When the reports are in for the year 2009 , I  think we may be surprised in our goal to be a 50/50 church, where we do as much for others as we do for ourselves. I have seen the report, and I am pleased! You will get the percentage report in this issue of the Glad Tidings. We have made good progress on that goal in recent years, let's not fall into a pattern of SERVE ME rather that SERVE YOU.

The growth of this church across the years has been directly connected to our willingness to reach out to others, to include them in our fellowship and to include them in our concern for their needs.

It is always true of a growing church, IF YOU WANT TO THRIVE, SERVE!

Let's be sure that we  continue to work and make all the words of our Mission Statement ACTIVE WORDS.

Let's LOVE, GROW, SERVE, SHARE in word and in deed!

                                                                          Dick Reese